1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to apparatus for preparing an area of soil for planting, and more particularly, apparatus for manipulating and removing at least some of the debris, for example, crop residue or trash, from the area of soil being prepared for planting.
2. Description of Related Art
There are several ways in which farm land covered with crop residue is prepared for planting or seeding. In the past, the land was turned over by a plow, cut by disks, pulverized by a harrow, etc. However, preparing the soil in this manner is less desirable or unacceptable in some circumstances due to erosion problems caused by use of the above apparatus, particularly such use on contoured land. Thus, there has been significant interest in "low-till" and "no-till" farming, which, rather than turning over and tilling an entire field, tills only spaced strips of soil. This method of soil preparation reduces the damaging effects of erosion on the soil.
The strips of soil are tilled by tools which penetrate the surface of the soil and form a seedbed area for planting. The apparatus may use rotatable coulter wheels or disks to cut and mix the soil followed by a penetrating blade for additional cultivation of the soil. In addition, apparatus for penetrating the soil hardpan to form a passage therein beneath the seedbed may be used as well. The tillage apparatus may be followed by a planter or drill which places seed in the seedbed prepared along each strip of soil.
As mentioned above, because turning over the soil in an entire residue-laden field may create serious erosion problems, it is desirable to have some of the crop residue remain on the soil surface after planting. However, the crop residue may cause problems in tilling the strips of soil by becoming caught or stuck in the tillage apparatus and interfering with mixing of the soil. This is known in the art as plugging or rapping. Further, the adverse effects of mixing excessive crop residue in the soil forming the seedbed are well known in the art. For example, see U.S. Pat. No. 5,333,694 which discloses a strip till seedbed preparation apparatus which removes some of the crop residue. While the coulter disks of such known tillage apparatus may be sufficient to remove a limited amount of crop residue from the planting area, excessive mixing of residue in the seedbed still occurs and may adversely affect the tilled soil.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improved apparatus for removing or clearing crop residue from the soil to prevent mixing of an excessive amount of such residue in the seedbed.